Related Links

Volunteers for Golden Harvest Food Bank’s “It’s Spooky to Be Hungry” annual food drive will walk door to door in more than 200 neighborhoods collecting bags of nonperishable food items. Collections in Georgia counties are Saturday, and Aiken County collections are Oct. 27.

“It’s Spooky to Be Hungry is the largest food drive that Golden Harvest facilitates,” said Millie Robinson, the food bank’s event director. “This is a great jump off point to get rolling for the rest of the holiday season.”

The Halloween-themed food drive was first organized by Eveyln Weil Brown in 1992 in Rochester, Minn., according to Golden Harvest. She moved to the Augusta area in 1995 and brought It’s Spooky to Be Hungry to Columbia County.

An additional 200 businesses, churches, schools and civic organizations collected food beginning Oct. 1 and will continue through the end of the month. The food drive goal is 160,000 pounds of food, Robinson said.

In 2011, 153,215 pounds of food and $56,935 were collected.

Fliers with instructions on how to participate will be distributed by volunteers in every registered neighborhood, Robinson said. Residents can tape the flier to a bag of food and leave it on the doorstep if they will not be home during collection time, typically 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The food bank’s most needed items are canned fruit, vegetables and meat. Items not accepted are baby formula, baby food and glass containers.

Be on the lookout for a It’s Spooky to Be Hungry flier delivered to your house to know whether your neighborhood is participating in the Golden Harvest Food Bank drive.

The collection for Georgia counties is Saturday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Aiken County is collecting in neighborhoods on Oct. 27. Leave the bagged nonperishable food on the doorstep with the flier attached or wait for a volunteer to come to your door.